Some surprising elements

I could only remember fragments of this film so it was fun to revisit it recently. I didn’t realise it was the same director as Rocky.

Both films have surprisingly little of the sport in question, and mainly focus on drama and relationships ‘outside the ring’. I was surprised that we only see Daniel actually fighting karate at the very end.

Also surprised to see how severely Daniel has his ass kicked. He’s a nice guy yet within moments his friends abandon him and he’s relentlessly bullied with constant brutal beatings, showing up with massive facial bruises and scars. He’s good humoured and plays a prank on Johnny, only to get a further battering. It really feels like the film is kicking a puppy, and even at the end fight they try to cheat by disabling him.

I’d like to have seen Daniel share the load a bit - maybe have some friends who help him but also get beaten up, or maybe Daniel fights back when he has some karate skills and lays out a couple of bullies before the rest batter him. Sure, he almost immediately bags the hottest girl in school, but other than that he’s basically a lonely punch-bag for a gang of sadists.

Apparently the original ending had him being carried away by other kids - this would affirm that he is now popular and respected. I think they should have left it in and still kept the Miyagi smile closing shot.

I could have done with an explanation of the rules of the tournament. I still don’t know exactly how you win a karate fight or get disqualified.

I wouldn’t change the film, I like that it had the confidence to focus on bullying, training and relationships, and the bold move of ending the film moments after the final crane kick, leaving on a high as the power-music plays was unusually effective.